What pleases our Lord God the most is our love for Him and for one another. The
love of our God - heavenwards - and for one another - spread around in all
directions - brings inner freedom, as well as very important sense of equality,
one with another, before our God. Has not our Lord Jesus Christ said to us,
"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you"
(St. John 15:12). While we have the opportunity given to us as true Christians
on this earth, we should earnestly seek, with all our mind, heart and soul,
to please our Gracious God. If we seek to please our God then we should at
the same time seek to please our neighbor, pray for our neighbor, and so our
neighbor will become our true friend.

How often have we spiritually strived to please our God? How often have we strived to please our neighbor? We fail to please our God when we fail to love our neighbor. It is a matter of supreme importance for all Orthodox Christians to walk every day in the true Christian life of loving God and being pleasing to Him. When we please our God, our neighbor will want to share our lives with us. Shouldn't we then desire to please our God?

We should! We must!

The more love we offer to God and one another, the more we will be able to behold the joys of Paradise - the Glorious Kingdom of our God. Then again, when we strive to love God and offer our brothers and sisters in Christ our Savior deep and humble respect, then we bring joy to our God, become His true friends, and become closer to Him.

The soul that truly loves God and his neighbor experiences the complete peace and joy that only our Lord Christ can give. Again in St. John's Gospel, our Lord says to us "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you (14:27). His gift of peace makes our life become bearable, even when we feel as if the whole world around us is falling apart. It will not fall apart when we offer our love to Him and receive His peace.

We must never judge anyone, or have bad thoughts or ill feelings towards anyone and this includes our neighbor. Our love must be pure in heart, and from this commitment to purity comes blessedness. The great reward we have is the friendship of our God who will never abandon us, but always remains close to us, all because of our love for Him. His presence, and His abundant grace, is always with us!

Isn't it high time, then, that we learn the ways of loving our God, and our
neighbor?